Featured The Morgan melt down: Pittman Act 1918

No very few if any 03-Os came out of the Redfield hoard, as I said those came from the treasuy distribution in 1963. One of the big finds in the Redfield Hoard was a bag or two of MS 1895-S dollars. Unfortunately the IRS people tabulating the estate ran all of them through counting machines that left scratches and "wheel marks" on them. There were a couple of other better date bags in the Redfield hoard but nothing like the 03-O or 98-O from the Treasury hoard.

Oh, one other amazing thing that turned up in the 1963 Treasury distribution were at least two, possibly three bags of MS 1859-O and 1860-O seated dollars.

 

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Ah, so were these disseminated by banks in exchange for silver certificates? Was this done separately from or in conjunction with the US Treasury audit and subsequent GSA'a Morgan auction?

 

Yes through the banks and to a large extent through the Cash Windows at the Federal Reserve banks, and the Treasury Building in Washington DC. (possible at the Philadelphia and Denver mints as well but I don't know if they still had Cash Windows at that time. (While the Fed Banks do not normally deal with the general public, years ago each one did have a "Cash Window" where people could come in and do cash exchanges. Currency for coin, coin for currency etc. The Mints and Treasury building had similar windows.) During the great silver dollar rush people were lined up around the block at the treasury building and Fed banks, some with wheelbarrels, waiting to exchange their silver certificates for bags of silver dollars. While you could get silver dollars from your local banks, most of them did not really want to deal with ordering and stocking bags of dollars.

 

I think one way people try to the estimate the number of remaining Morgan Dollar specimens for a given Date/MM is through the population reports for submissions for that given date/mm to PCGS and NGC.

However, I think even this is flawed, because it does not account for crackouts that have been re-submitted. Nor can this method account for all the coins that have not yet been submitted.

Somehow, I'm sure they use a formula that extrapolates the numbers based on coins that have been submitted, but it's certainly an inexact estimation method.

 

In 1918, most of the world was still on the gold standard, at least nominally. An exception was the British Raj, which was on the silver standard. When America joined World War I, it took a number of actions to help its new allies. One of these was the Pittman Act, which called for the Treasury to melt silver dollars and deliver the bullion to the British in India, where it was coined into silver rupees. The Pittman Act called for the melted silver dollars to be replaced after the war, hence the large mintages of these coins in 1921, 22 and 23.

As circulating coins, silver dollars were never popular outside of the American west; those issued between 1878 and 1904 were the unloved result of a political deal between hard and soft money advocates, with the main beneficiaries being Western mining interests. The government dealt with the lack of demand by virtually circulating the coins via the issue of silver certificates backed specifically by silver dollars, while the actual coins piled up in the sub-basement vaults of the Treasury building in DC.

Various factors determined which coins wound up there, and which ones got melted in 1918. Coins issued in San Francisco had a more enthusiastic native clientele than those issued in Philadelphia, while the area around Carson City had a relatively small population, so most of the CC issues got shipped straight to the Treasury. When the order to melt silver dollars came through, the Treasury workers grabbed the bags that were easiest to access, and some of the older issues tended to be way in the back, so to speak. This probably accounts for the relative scarcity of 1890's Morgans compared to some earlier issues with similar mintages.

 

Just saw this thread got featured recently. Over 5 years from the day I posted it, I enjoyed reading through this again.

 

how did they get all 47% so they could melt them down

 

All i know is they didnt melt enough of them

 

yep

 

Cool Thread Folks, thanks..

Did y'all catch the Bag of UNC Seated Dollars?

 

The dollar coins were never popular for circulation so most of the coins made went directly into the government vaults and were used as the backing for silver certificates which DID circulate. When it was decided to melt down the dollars they already had them in their possession. What they did have to do was withdraw the equivalent number of silver certificates from circulation.

What's worse is they replaced close to a third of the dollars they melted down with 1921 Morgans. (The rest were replaced with Peace dollars.)

And then after all those MS seated dollars were distributed by the Treasury in 1963, only a single well circulated seated dollar turned up in the GSA sales.

 

errr thanks not in the yellow box

 

No chance of them finding more bags nowadays, so I think the prices are going to be stable now. 1921 Morgans and common Peace dollars fluctuate with the price of silver, but I doubt if there were many melted in recent times. Maybe culls were melted, but most silver dollars seem to hold their value enough so that they escape the smelter lately.

 

During the silver run up in late 1979 early 1980 Leon Henderickson of Silvertowne sent 300 bags of MS 1883 O dollars to the smelters.

 

Wow!